


If You Could Only See the Beast You've Made of Me

by Cinnamongirl



Category: What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Genre: Canon-Typical Bad Decisions, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, this can be read as pre-Nick/Stu or gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:34:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinnamongirl/pseuds/Cinnamongirl
Summary: One must never lose sight of what's really important,evenespecially if one is a werewolf.
Comments: 36
Kudos: 69
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	If You Could Only See the Beast You've Made of Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luckybarton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckybarton/gifts).



> My eternal gratitude to [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/pseuds/Morbane) for beta-reading.
> 
> The title comes from the song Howl by Florence and the Machine.

The first time Stu transformed, he wasn’t really aware of what was happening until it was over. He was still dazed and giddy from meeting so many different supernatural beings at the Unholy Masquerade, and then being threatened by several of them before finally killing one of them.

Afterward, he was on the way back home with his vampire friends (which had become a completely normal thing for him to say) when they ran into the werewolves, and then there was a lot of pain and he blacked out for a while. 

He didn't remember getting up from the stretcher. He wasn’t consciously aware of much at all, actually, except that everything looked smaller and he’d become an angry whirlwind of claws and teeth. It was sort of like a dream, if he’d been dreaming about being a chainsaw with legs and too much hair. He remembered that he ran a lot and howled a few times and he wasn’t sure but he might have killed somebody.

When he woke up the next morning, his clothes were all torn up and there was blood and hair everywhere, and it felt like the worst hangover of his life. “Sorry about that, mate,” Angus said. He was sitting next to Stu on the grass. “Uh, welcome to the pack?”

The second time Stu transformed, he knew what was coming. He met up with the rest of the werewolves at the scheduled time, wearing track pants and a loose-fitting shirt that he could grow into. He thought about the purple shorts that the Hulk always wore and wondered if they would be more embarrassing or less embarrassing than track pants.

Stu chained himself up, along with the rest of them, with the key to the lock on a cord around his neck. They spent the night snarling at each other and howling as they pulled against their chains.

He felt like shit once the sun came up and the transformation had worn off, but at least his clothes were intact and he hadn’t lost his key. “Do you want to have breakfast with us?” Clifton asked him.

“Can’t, I’ve got to go home and change before work.”

“You’re going to work today?” Everyone turned to look at him strangely, as if he’d made some kind of werewolf faux pas.

“There’s an important client meeting this morning and I can’t miss it.”

Stu rushed home and had just enough time to shower and change clothes and make it to work with five minutes to spare. He was tired and his throat was hoarse from all the howling and he felt like he was starving. He went to the break room, hoping that somebody had brought donuts or something, but there wasn’t any food so he ate some chips from the vending machine and drank about a pot of coffee.

He really wished someone had warned him that caffeine had the same effect on werewolves as being really angry. He felt tense and agitated, like he was just on the verge of transforming. He barely managed to get through the meeting by counting to ten, over and over, and doing this breathing exercise that he remembered from Nick’s yoga phase a few years ago.

“Stu, you’re always so calm,” one of his coworkers said. “I don’t think you ever get flustered.”

“Mmmhh,” he said vaguely.

Later that morning, he transformed for the third time after the copy machine jammed. Stu was aware of snarling and tearing into it with his claws before he managed to count to ten and change back. Mick from Engineering walked in just in time to see him covered in toner, with his clothes nearly shredded. The copier was in pieces all over the floor. “Nice!” Mick said. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

The next morning went more smoothly. Stu managed to plan things so that he could eat breakfast, and he’d taken a nap before transforming at night in order to be more awake for work. He felt a lot better, except for the fact that he was really craving red meat. Stu had been a vegetarian for years but it was apparently a lot more difficult as a werewolf. He’d gotten a fair amount of work done when Joanna from Accounting approached him. They worked in different parts of the building and he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her. “I know what you are,” she said.

“Everyone knows what I am.” He pointed to the place on his name tag where it said Systems Analyst.

“That’s not what I mean.” She looked at him sternly. “I know why you have those scars on your face, and what really happened to the copier yesterday, and why you’re such a mess during the full moon.”

“Ah.”

“Don’t worry, I think we can work out an arrangement. Let’s have lunch.”

They went to a cafe nearby. Stu gave in and ordered a beef sandwich, but they cooked the meat too much and he didn’t really enjoy it.

“I’m a vampire hunter,” Joanna said, “and you’re a werewolf. Vampires are your natural enemies.”

“That’s just in _Twilight_ , it’s not real.”

“Bella should’ve ended up with Leah Clearwater,” she said, “but that’s not important right now. Wellington has a pretty significant vampire population and we can work together to eradicate them.” 

“I don’t want to hunt vampires.” 

“And I don’t want to tell your boss that you’re a werewolf, but we don’t always get what we want, do we?” 

Stu wasn’t sure whether or not it was against company policy to be be a werewolf, but he didn’t want to find out the hard way. “I’ll think about it.” 

“Think quickly,” she said.

__

Stu met up with Nick that evening so that he could eat dinner while Nick stared longingly. They'd done this a few times while Stu was still human and he'd always suspected that Nick was more interested in biting him and draining his blood than he was in the actual food. After he became a werewolf, Nick had lost all interest in his blood but still enjoyed his company. 

__They’d been unlikely friends even before they were supernatural enemies. Stu was quiet and boring and serious while Nick was loud and covered in tattoos, but he’d never met anyone else who was so easy to be around. Stu had met him several years ago, after some of Stu’s coworkers had set him up with Nick’s sister. They only dated for a few months before they broke up but Nick had become one of his best friends, and friends don’t let friends get killed by vampire hunters._ _

__He told Nick about Joanna. “I don’t know what to do,” he said._ _

__“This is really bad. You’re still on our side, right?”_ _

__“Of course I am.”_ _

__“We should talk to the guys about it. They’ve had more experience with vampire hunters, they should know what to do.” He watched Stu chew his food. “What’s it feel like, turning into a huge fucking wolf?”_ _

“It’s hard to describe. You feel powerful, but like you’re not fully in control of yourself. Is that what it’s like when you drink blood?” 

“We don’t go into a blood frenzy or anything. It just tastes good, you know?” 

"I guess."

“You should kill her,” Vladislav said, once they’d explained the situation. “You have claws now, don't you? Why do you need us?" 

"I don't know." If he and Joanna started spending time together outside of work and then she turned up dead, he'd probably be an obvious suspect. "What if I get caught?"

"Just tell us who caught you and we'll hypnotize them," Deacon said. "Or kill them. Maybe we should just save time and kill her?" 

Viago spoke up, “Are we really talking about bringing a vampire hunter here? Isn’t that the last thing that we want?” 

“It’s better if we know exactly where she is,” Deacon said. “Otherwise she could be out, roaming the streets, and she could come here at any moment.” He turned to Stu. “Do you know what kind of equipment she carries with her?” 

He thought about the small gold crucifix necklace that she always wore, which probably should have tipped him off that she was a vampire hunter. “She wears a crucifix all the time.” The vampires flinched when he said this. “I’m not sure other than that.” 

“The other vampire hunter had wooden stakes with him, didn’t he? We should assume that this one does, too.” 

The five of them—Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, Nick and Stu—worked together to make a plan. Stu would tell Joanna that he knew of a house with four vampires, and that they should all be asleep during the day, but they would actually be awake (with the windows boarded up, for safety) and ready to kill her and drink her blood. 

__Nick was quiet throughout the planning process. He mostly looked sad and guilty, and Stu suspected that he was remembering the other vampire hunter who he’d accidentally invited into their home._ _

__“It’s too bad you’re not a vampire,” he said to Stu, after they’d left the house. “Nobody would ask you to hunt us then.”_ _

__Nick had offered to turn him into a vampire, around the time when he’d turned Jackie. “We don’t need them,” he’d said. “We’ll start our own vampire house and it’ll be cooler than theirs.”_ _

__Stu turned him down, mostly because he thought that Nick was just saying it out of loneliness, and he was worried that they’d both end up regretting it. He would also have to quit his job if he became a vampire because the office was only open during the day, and he was up for a raise at the end of the year._ _

__He had a feeling that he would have been bitten by one of the zombies from the Unholy Masquerade if the werewolves hadn’t gotten to him first. Maybe it was his fate to become some kind of supernatural creature, one way or another._ _

__

__Stu approached Joanna at work the next day. She seemed impressed that he’d already found vampires on his own. As far as he could tell, she didn’t suspect anything. Stu was generally a calm person, except when he was a rampaging werewolf, and it usually helped him win in poker. He hoped that it wouldn’t fail him now._ _

__“You said four vampires? They’ll be dangerous, but it would be amazing if we could kill all of them at once. How did you even find out about them?”_ _

__“The werewolves have had run-ins with them in the past.”_ _

__“See, I knew you’d be good at this. I’ll have to run home to get my gear, but I’ll meet you there right before sunset. You’re strong and you’re a lot harder to kill than I am so you shouldn’t need anything special.”_ _

__“You know that I can’t transform on command, right?”_ _

__“Don’t worry, you’ll transform quickly once they attack you. Vampires are your natural enemies, remember?”_ _

__

__They approached the house from different directions, which reassured Stu somewhat that he wouldn’t have been seen walking with Joanna right before she died. She was wearing a thick leather jacket and combat boots and carrying a duffel bag. He wouldn’t necessarily think ‘vampire hunter’ if he saw her on the street, but it was obvious that she’d come prepared for something serious. He led her up to the front door and unlocked it before he realized what he was doing._ _

__“How’d you manage to get a key?”_ _

__“I, uh, stole it.”_ _

__“Nice going!”_ _

__The house was dark inside. Stu closed the door behind them, careful to block out the daylight as quickly as possible._ _

__“You know that some of us can’t see in the dark, right?”_ _

__“Oh, sorry, uh-” He fumbled for his phone, but he heard the click of a lighter behind him._ _

__Joanna was in the process of lighting a candle that she’d pulled out of somewhere- probably her duffel bag. “I know it’s old-fashioned, but fire kills vampires and this is safer than a wooden torch.”_ _

__“Uh, sure. Good idea.”_ _

__The plan was for him to break the thin chain of her necklace so that the vampires could attack her. Hopefully, nobody would suspect that he’d been involved with her death. If anyone did accuse him, Nick had already offered to hypnotize them. He’d been practicing and he was getting pretty good at it._ _

__Stu led her down the hallway. He didn’t want to turn on her too soon, in case the vampires were too far away to help him in time, but he didn’t want to wait too long and possibly put them at risk. The fire was something that they hadn’t accounted for at all. Stu mentally cursed himself for not reminding them to leave the lights on in the house._ _

__Just before they entered the living room, he turned to Joanna._ _

__“Everything okay?” she asked._ _

__“You’re wearing your crucifix, right?”_ _

__“Of course. See?” She unzipped her jacket, showing him. The one she was wearing today was large and made of what looked like silver._ _

__He winced. “Good. That’s good. Don’t want to be unprepared.” The adverse reaction to silver was one of the few things that vampires and werewolves had in common. It was another variable that he hadn’t planned for._ _

__Stu took a deep breath, and opened the door. He stepped to the side, motioning for Joanna to go in front of him._ _

__“Nervous?” she asked._ _

__“A little.”_ _

__He could see her rolling her eyes at him in the candlelight but she obliged and walked ahead of him. Stu followed closely behind her, staring at the back of her neck. The silver would burn him but he couldn't think of another way to do this. They took several steps into the room._ _

“ _Now!_ ” Nick’s voice was very quiet- barely even a whisper, not something that could have been heard without super werewolf hearing. 

__While her back was to him, Stu grabbed the crucifix necklace and started pulling on it._ _

__“What the hell are you doing?” Joanna tried to turn around but Stu turned with her, shuffling in a circle. This was more painful than he'd anticipated. The longer he held onto it, trying to break it apart, the more it burned his hands._ _

__“Shit,” he said, mostly to himself. “Jesus fucking Christ.” He was barely aware of Vladislav and Deacon and—was that Jackie?—in the corner of his vision but he could feel himself starting to transform, probably from the cursing and the adrenaline. It gave him a sudden burst of strength that was enough to break the chain and throw it behind him, out of the room._ _

__Stu was gasping and snarling now. His hands still felt like they were burning and his whole body was too tight. Jackie and Vladislav tried to attack Joanna from either side but then they backed away from her for some reason. She yelled at them and the vampires shouted back at her and Stu was trying to count but his vision was blurry and he couldn’t think clearly._ _

__One, two, three, four, five, six-_ _

__There was a sudden noise that cut through everything else- Nick was hissing in pain. Stu forced himself to _focus_ and he saw that Joanna had him backed into a corner with another crucifix. She had a wooden stake in her other hand. It occurred to Stu that he didn’t know what had happened to the candle, but he was distracted by the sight of Joanna drawing back the stake to stab Nick with it._ _

__Stu growled, his skin going cold and hot all at once. He leapt at Joanna and by the time he reached her he was fully transformed. He roughly shoved her away from Nick and to the ground, biting her with his sharp teeth. He might have howled at some point, it was hard to tell._ _

__By the time he transformed back, Joanna was a mangled body covered in werewolf bites and Deacon had finished using her jacket to stomp out the fire on the carpet. So that was where the candle had ended up._ _

__“Well,” Viago said, “That went better than I expected it to.”__

***

He didn’t see Joanna again until the next werewolf barbecue. Stu didn’t really enjoy these, because they had a tendency to exacerbate his already-complicated feelings about meat, but Anton said that everybody had to attend.

__“I don’t see why we’re wasting our time like this,” Joanna was saying. “We should be out hunting vampires, not cooking meat.” She didn’t have scars on her face like he did but she probably had several on her back, where he’d grabbed her. At least she seemed like the type of person who thought scars were cool._ _

__“We have an agreement with the vampires,” Anton explained. “We don’t attack them and they don’t attack us.”_ _

__“Stu likes the vampires and we all like Stu,” Declan said._ _

__Clifton added, “They’re all right once you get to know them.”_ _

__Joanna groaned._ _

__Stu tried to walk away without attracting attention, but she noticed him anyway. “And you! Don’t think I forgot about how you lied to me and tried to have your friends kill me.” She tried to frown but her face broke out into a grin. “Nah, I can’t stay mad at you. This werewolf thing is pretty badass, isn’t it?”_ _

__“I guess. See you at work tomorrow?”_ _

__“Yeah, all right.”_ _

__

He met up with Nick to play tennis after the sun went down. “That was intense, watching you transform like that. You were all- _raargh!_ ” he made a gesture like he was clawing at something. “I can’t believe you saved me. That’s amazing.” 

“You’re my best friend.” 

"You know, when I thought you were dead, it was awful. I was just really sad all the time. I'm glad you're still here."

"You too."

Stu won their tennis game. He’d won most of the time back when they were both human, and then Nick won all of their games after he became a vampire, but they were evenly matched now. He thought that maybe this was how it was always supposed to be. 


End file.
